Warsaw, Poland – While Western support to provide military aid to Ukraine has been steadfast over the last nineteen months, a number of European states appear to be having a change of heart, opting to now prioritize domestic issues. Is European support for Ukraine doomed?

Since the war’s outbreak in February 2022, Poland has established itself as one of Ukraine’s firmest allies, supplying tanks, armored vehicles, howitzers, fighter jets, short-range man-portable air defense, or MANPAD, systems, and munitions, among others, to its neighbor.

Some of these donated weapons are outdated Soviet-designed gear that Warsaw has long been planning to replace with new equipment. This includes the supplied T-72 tanks for which the U.K. has deployed a number of Challenger 2 tanks to Poland in an effort to partly bridge the capacity gap.

However, in other cases, deliveries to Ukraine created temporary gaps in the Polish military’s capacities. Among others, last spring, Warsaw donated Mikoyan MiG-29 fighters to Ukraine’s Air Force before it received the first deliveries of South Korean FA-50 aircraft the country’s Ministry of National Defence ordered in 2022.